It has been a while since I've posted in this one, but the work continues. I'm really not sure how some of you can knock out such beautiful machine restorations at lightening speed! I don't think I work particularly slowly, but this sure is taking forever! Regardless, I'm having a good time doing it...
The countershaft assembly was really holding me up from assembling the lathe head since I need to put a new serpentine belt on there and don't yet know the belt length. For whatever reason, the countershaft assembly just did NOT seem like it would be fun to mess with. Of course it really wasn't bad, but I didn't have a ton of motivation to work on it. I started with the ugly green motor. I pulled it apart, pressed off the bearings, replaced them with new ones, and painted the motor:
The countershaft was disassembled, stripped, and repainted. I actually bought a second one on ebay for just $40 with the intention of learning how to line bore on it as a project. I want to bore it out to insert these oilite bearings I purchased. Obviously I can't bore my countershaft stand while the lathe is running, so the second one was the right price.
The tailstock, milling attachment, and a ton of other parts were stripped and repainted. It took me forever to mask all those parts!
It sure does bring me great joy to see this table filling up though!
I picked up a couple super cool accessories that are also getting painted. Telescoping steady rest and follow rest. I'm especially excited about the follow rest because even though it's not often used, my understanding is that the telescoping follow rest is not particularly common.
And finally, I did do the spindle takeup bearing mod as well:
...Next up will be mounting the countershaft to the bench so I can accurately measure for the serpentine belt. Then final head assembly. What's left is the quick change gear box and the saddle.